‘Road to GEC’ Kicks Off Conversations for GECommunity Summit 2017

Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) kicks off the conversation for GECommunity Summit 2017 with ‘Road to GEC’, a teaser leading up to the global summit in December.

30 corporations took part in the ‘Road to GEC’ event, contributing to Innovation Chats, where industry and corporate players, ecosystem influencers, policy makers, and entrepreneurs participated in personalised engagement sessions. Corporate players and industry leaders presented situations or problem statements for participants of the session to brainstorm solutions on. These problem statements and the proposed solutions would potentially be carried out in the GEC Labs during the GECommunity Summit.

Innovation Clinics were also carried out during the ‘Road to GEC’ event, where existing entrepreneurs at varying stages of their respective businesses participated with the intention of improving their existing businesses or validate their business ideas.

Taking place on 12 and 13 December at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, the theme of this year’s GECommunity Summit is ‘Designing the Future’ and aims to raise approximately MYR100 million in value creation through the GEC Labs. 100 GEC Labs is set to take place at the global summit that will feature in-depth discussions on key topics across 15 focus areas. The objective of GEC Labs is to explore new ideas and opportunities through conversations with players in the entrepreneurship ecosystem and ultimately use these ideas to transform and enhance industries.

“What we want to do is basically ensure that solid ideas see the light of day. By bringing together corporate sector leaders, movers and shakers in the startup and SME space, governments and ecosystem builders to lead and participate in the GEC Labs, innovative solutions can be developed and will benefit industries as a whole,” said Ashran Dato’ Ghazi, Chief Executive Officer of Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC).

This year’s GECommunity will explore focus areas which include Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning; E-Commerce & Retail; Fashion & Beauty; Food & Beverage; Hardware & IoT; Health & Biotech; Media, Gaming & Entertainment; Mobility & Transportation; Security & IT; Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality; Education; Social Innovation; Fintech & Payment; Creative; and Smart Cities. Topics to be discussed at the summit are opened to the public for submissions. The public can also participate in the open sessions as well as the GEC Labs.

The summit will feature speakers include futurists Dr. Michio Kaku and Sophie Hackford; former politician, venture capitalist, and champion for France’s tech startup scene Fleur Pellerin; and serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Steve Hoffman. Speaker invitations have also been extended to individuals in the local entrepreneurship space such as AirAsia’s Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Bioeconomy Development Corporation’s Dr. Shuhaizam, and NanoMalaysia’s Dr. Rezal Khairi Ahmad.

The global summit is initiated by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), organized by MaGIC, and held in collaboration with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Malaysia (MOSTI) and the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE), with GEM as the community partner.

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